Biennale Interieur Kortrijk

1423October2016

Kortrijk Xpo, Hall 4, Booth 408,
Kortrijk (BE)

Galleries Section
Hall 4, Booth 480

Professional Day
Friday, 14 October
10 am – 9 pm

Public Days
15 to 23 October
10 am – 6 pm

The 25th silver edition of the Biennale Interieur is curated by OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen, Richard Venlet and graphic designer Joris Kritis. Together they pay homage to the Biennale with the theme and programme ‘Silver Lining – Interiors’. Central in several installations that will be spread over various halls, is the idea that furniture and objects are not isolated items; they are always part of the organised space. The curators will attempt to offer a new understanding of objects in their context instead of the objects being consumed as autonomous trophies. We spend most of our lives in designed environments surrounded by objects, but are they sufficiently appreciated as part of a wider whole?

Invited gallery
The curatorial team invited 4 renowned galleries who explore the boundaries between art, architecture and design to contribute to their theme ‘Interiors’. Next to the ‘Interior’ by MANIERA, discover installations by Valerie Traan (BE), Etage Projects (DK) and Carwan Gallery (LB). For the concept and design of its exhibition space, MANIERA invited Belgian iconic architect Juliaan Lampens (°1926).

Since the 1960’s Lampens has been associated with brutalism as an architectural genre. His executed work mostly consists of private houses built in rough concrete. The spartan interiors of these houses share an uncompromising open floor plan. In Lampens’ buildings the notion of the open plan is not only an architectural idea on paper but defends also a way of living. Throughout his entire career the architect explored on the equal presence of every function in the space, without any separation.

A seaside apartment
In the interior of his own seaside apartment dating from 1969, Lampens projected the principle of the open floor plan in a playful way. The flat was situated in Relaxie Residence, an apartment building designed also by the architect in the Belgian coastal town of Oostduinkerke. For the interiors Lampens introduced in a large room 2 sliding walls consisting of one larger and one smaller ‘door’ panel, all in plywood, veneered with polish pine. The pieces were gliding on rails from the ceiling and floating 15mm above the floor. Both elements of the walls could be parked in front of each other which effortlessly made the room to one big area with the balcony expanding on two sides. If pushed aside, the space could be devided in 4 equal rooms.

With this very straightforward intervention Lampens experimented further on the idea of flexible, undetermined spaces. To enhance this simplicity of changing between rooms and functions the architect also adapted the design of a narrow daybed he originally conceived and used for his main house in Eke. In the seaside flat this adjusted version, consisting of 2 pieces, served as a sofa during the daytime and was converted to a bed at night. 4 sofa beds were present in the apartment. Both the panels and these sofa beds enabled to maximise the spatial possibilities of the limited surface of the apartment.

The exhibition design
The first version of the daybed from 1960 has been taken into production by MANIERA in 2016 as a limited re-edition of 24 pieces. Inspired by the object and the interior of Oostduinkerke, Juliaan Lampens proposes a constellation of 4 ‘floating’ panels to create 4 equal rooms. The panels do not meet in the middle. A narrow empty space in the exact centre of the installation enables glimpses from one room to the other as was the case in the Oostduinkerke interior.

More MANIERA
Other MANIERA architects and artists have been invited by the curatorial team to create ‘Interiors’. Jonathan Muecke presents the ‘Green House’, a pavilion at the entrance of the fair, an exteriors ‘Interior’ or interiors exterior – understanding that both an ‘Interior’ and an exterior are always present. Richard Venlet contributed to the ‘Interior’ of The Solo House by OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen. His new Solo Stool is on show next to the firm’s own Solo Chair, designed for MANIERA in 2014. aDVVT’s Kamer Renee Cabinet is part of ‘Generations’, an exhibition of highlights of the design history from 1968 to today, selected by the curators.